Surface condenser



Sept. 23, 1930. A. DELAS 1,776,349

SURFACE CONDENSER Filed Sept. 30, 1925 Patented Sept. 23, 1930v 1 77 349v rrao STATES PATEN oFrIcE ALBERT DELAS, OF PARIS, FRANCE SURFACE CONDENSER Application filed September 30; 1925, Serial No. 59,447, and in France January 2, 1905.

In surface condensers designed to consible gases, they are drawn by means of a dense steam on the outside of a nest of tubes suitable extractor to the lower part of the through which cooling water flows, the thernest where they collect by reason of the mic conductivity of the exchange or cooldifference in density, being nearly always 5 ing surface is limited or impaired, among heavier than the steam to be condensed. 55 other influences, (1) by the evaporation of Nevertheless, these gases create always in the condensate on the tubes, (2) by the great the apparatus a certain tension which added difficulty encountered by the steam in findto that of the steam is-detrimental in a cone ing access to the tubes situated in the cendenser of a thermal engine, and their pres-- 1 ter of the nest, and by the presence of ence produces an insulating effect on the 60 non-condensible gases mixed with the steam. exchange or cooling surface.

(1) To reduce the insulating action of the The present invention has for its subject evaporating condensate on tubes, it has been matter a special arrangement of the nest of proposed to place in a nest bafile plates to tubes in such manner that on the one hand a collect the condensed water coming from the great number of tubes are exposed to the 65 tubes above and to lead the same directly direct flow of the steam to be condensed and, to the lower part, thus preventing evaporaon the other hand, the water of condensation on the tubes placed below. These baftion drips only on a verv small number of fies have the defect of constituting an obtubes and falls freely to the lower )art of stacle to the flow of the steam and to create the condenser without the use of ba es and, 7 a loss of power which is directly contrary to finally, that the momentum acquired by the the purpose aimed at, for instance when the freely falling water of condensation is uticondenser receives the exhaust of a thermal lized to carry the non-condensible gases to motor. On the other hand devices exist in the lower part of the condenser. To this i which the tubes, instead of being placed one end, the tubes are positioned in such man- 7 below the other in vertical rows, are so stagher that the nest, generally of saw teeth gered that the condensed liquid falling from formation, is limited in its upper part by an the lower generating surface of one of the outllne leaving between the individual eletubes strikes the tubes positioned immediments or groups of the nest trenches cont l b low at a tangent or practically so. verging in downward direction and in the so The condensate travels therefore on a slant, lower part by an outline. leaving'trenches that is in an oblique manner, fr tube to that diverge in downward direction. tube and the surface of each tube exposed Further objects, features and advantages to the drippin of the condensate is reduced of my lnvention will more fully appear from 3 to a fraction 0 the total surface. However, the detailed description below taken in conit is impossible to prevent in this manner nection with the accompanying drawings, in the effects of an accumulation of the conwhich, densate on the lower tubes, and even less so Fig. 1 is a cross sectional view of a conthan by the adoption of the baflies mentioned denser illustrating a nest of tubes arranged above, the inconvenience of which has been 1n accordance with the invention. described, Fig. 2 illustrates a modified form of the (2) With respect to the second cause for nest of tubes. the limitation of the thermal efiiciency of Fig.3 represents in detail an arrangement the surface exchange, experience has shown of the tubes within one of the elements or that it is of advantage to expose the greatgroups of the nest illustrated in Fig. 1. est possible number of tubes to the direct Fig. 4 represents another arrangement of flow of the steam to be condensed and, conthe tubes within the elements or groups of the sequently, to provide in the nest suitably nest illustrated in Fig. 2. located spaces without any tubes, Referring to the drawings in detail the ref- 50 Finally, to eliminate the non-condenerence numeral 10 designates a condenser casill ' S and S in the lowerpart of ing provided with a Suitable inlet'll and a plurality of cooling tubes 12. The'end lower part by an inverse line designated by' the characters A B C D E F G. In Fig. 2 the upper line is designated by the letters A B C D E F Gr H I and the lower line by the characters A B C D E F G H I.

Such an outline according to Fig. 1 produces in the upper part of the condenser spaces S, S S and S without tubes, which spaces converge from the top to the bottom, and in the lower part spaces S", S and S which diverge from the top towards the bottom. The centralpart of the condenser may be occupied by a projecting'tooth, as illustrated in Fig. 1, or by an empty space like S as illustrated in /Fig. 2. The outline according to F ig'. 2- produces spaces S, S and S in the upper part and spaces S, S the condenser. The tubes 12 may be arranged in the nests or groups illustrated in Figs. 1 and 2 as,

shown in either Figs. 3 or 4. In Fig. 3 the tubes are shown arranged in quincunx, forming a series of vertical rows. In Fig. 4, the.

tubes 12 are arranged in oblique rows inclined toward the lower spaces.

The operation is as follows: The steam arrives in the condenser 10 through the inlet 11 in the direction of the arrow 13. It enters the'open spaces S" S S S of Fig. 1 and the spaces S, S or S of Fig. 2 as the case may be, and flows in a generally downward direction through the nests of tubes and is condensed in the elements or groups of the nest of tubes which define these spaces. The form of the section of these open spaces, which narrows down to a point, is therefore, logical, since the volume delivered diminishes from the top to the bottom.

The water of condensation formed on the tubes 12 of each elementor group, follows the line l4-15-(Fig. 3) by dripping on each vertical rowof tubes and,'arriving at 15, it drops directly to the bottom of condenser 10 and across open spaces S", S 2 and S of Fig. 1 and across the open spaces S ,S

8' and S of Fig.2. The effect of theaccumulation of the water of condensation by its dripping is thereforeproduced only ona number of tubes equal to that of a row such as I l-15 and. may therefore be increased or reduced at will. Moreover, if the totalsurface is judiciously chosen, the steam is completely condensed after having passed the elements or groups such as E F E D (Fig.

fing tubes distributed t 'wardly convex-fling trenches abovethe same conditions the gases are carried along. The

momentum of the water of condensation falling freely from the-lower tubes through the Spaces-S, S S" ,'etc. formed by the nest of is known that under such tubes brings about the-desired entrainment i of" the gases and collects them in the lower part where they are extracted by suitable means.

I have illustrated in Fig. 3 an arrangement of the tubes in such a way that the water of condensation from an upper tube falls v ertically upon a lowertube. The lnventlon' may also be carried out in. practice by staggering the tubes in such manner that an oblique travel of the-condensation water from the upper trenches to the lower. trenches is pro-- duced, as illustrated in Fig. 4. The function is the samein either case but the realization of the oblique travel of the water of condensation presents the following advantage:

In the case of this slanting travel, all lines except those at'theri'ght of line 14'15 parallel to the travel of tho-water of condensation,

strike the rim E D" of trench S at a point' '15 situated higher than the point of intersection 15 of the perpendicular 14-15 drawn from 14.' The result thereof is that the condensatefallin in the trenches S S etc. from each tu e situated within the broken' lines A B C D E F G H, drops from a greater height in the case of oblique dripping than in case of vertical dripping. In consequence thereof, the momentum for the entrainment of the non-condensible gases is much greater in the former than in the latter case. Y 1

It is understood that the construction is not limited to the above described details and that a number of modifications may be made without deviating from the principle of the invention. In particular,the outlines A B C D etc. and A B C' D etc. mayhave a different form from those represented in Figures 1 and 2,'providedthat the upper line produces trenches or spaces converging downwardly and the lower line provides trenches as spaces where the water of condensation may freely drop from the lower tube towards the lower-part of the ap aratus'.

What I claim and deslre' to secure .by Letters' Patent is:

1. A condenser com 'ri'sing'a-nest of 0001 erein to formdownand downwar y divergin trenches below the same, 'sa id g nest, comprising a series of rows of tubes inclined towards said lower trenches and so arranged that the condensed water falling from the bottom of an upper tube of a row will fall on one side of the tube just below itin the same row to provide paral- 'lel paths for thesteam, water and air.

2. A condenser comprising a nest of cooling tubes distributed therein to form downwardly converging trenches above the same into which the steam is admitted and downwardly diverging trenches below the same from which the air is withdrawn, said nest comprising a series of rows of tubes inclined toward said lower trenches and so arranged that the condensed water falling from the bottom of an upper tube-of. a row will fall practically tangentially on one side of the tube just below it in the same row.- 1

3. A condenser comprising a nest of cooling tubes distributed therein to form downwardly converging trenches above the same into which the steam isadmitted and downwardly' diverging trenches below'the same from-which the air is withdrawn,-said nest comprising a series of rows of tubes inclined toward the lower'trenches and so arranged that the'condensed water falling from the bottom'of an upper tube of a row will fall-on 'that'side of the tube just below it in the same row which is remote from the lower trench toward whichsteam flows.

4. A condenser comprising a nest. of'cooling tubes distributed therein toform downwardly converging trenches above the same into which the steam is admitted and downwardly diverging trenches below the same "from which the air and water is withdrawn,

- the marginal tubes of the nest being so dis-- the marginaltubes of the nest defining said downwardly diverging trenches beingso disposed that a vertical plane including the axis of any marginal'tube will pass outside of the tube immediately therebelow.

5. A condenser comprising a nest of cooling tubes distributed thereinlto form downwardly diverging trenches below the same,

posed that a vertical plane including the axis of any marginal tube will pass outside of the tube immediately therebelow.

6. A condenser vcomprising anest of cooling tubes distributed therein to form a space 'for the admission of steam and a space for the withdrawal of air, said nest comprising a series of rows of tubes inclined toward said last named space and so arranged that the condensed waterfalling from thebottom of ..an upper tube of a row will fall on one side of the tube-just below it in the same row to provide parallel paths for the steam, water and air. 1 e v I In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand this 13th day of June, 1925.

.- ALBERT nELAs. 

